A few articles over the weekend that I meant to discuss. A *ahem* puff piece on new Recruiting Coordinator/TE Coach Greg Gattuso and weight issues. The issue of weight discrimination in the hiring of football coaches has become a sporadic issue in the last 5-7 years. Gattuso has dropped some 80 pounds in the last year plus. So that puts him, now around 270.

The problem remained, Gattuso was no small guy. He was a non-scholarship version of Ralph Friedgen and Tom Amstutz and Mark Mangino of New Castle. He was too big a man for a major-college campus, or so incorrectly thought the Division I-A, stuffed medium-to-large shirts — Walt Harris among them.

Gattuso once interviewed a few years ago with Harris across the Mon at Pitt’s Southside facility, but that sit down probably fell somewhere between formality and nicety. Nothing came of it. Nothing came of any major-college assistant’s vacancy, until Wannstedt came along and snapped up Pittsburgh’s most consistent college football winner since, who, Jock Sutherland?

Interesting. I think the general thinking was that for the most part Gattuso was content to stay in the Pittsburgh area. That he wasn’t looking to leave to be an assistant coach anywhere else. I’m actually more encouraged that he was trying to move up. Ambition and drive are important in all assistant coaches.

There has to be some concession that seeing a big, very overweight man huffing and puffing on a sideline getting stressed just looks like a heart attack on the field waiting to happen. There’s a reason for the treadmill jokes on the Jim Rome show whenever the name Mark Mangino comes up. He just doesn’t look healthy. And how fair or appropriate is it for a coach to be that way while pushing the players in conditioning and practice?

Meanwhile, on the nuts and bolts end, an article discusses the changes at Pitt football in recruiting.

If you were listening closely, however, it’s evident that Wannstedt is making wholesale changes to Pitt’s recruiting plans. Gattuso is a coach first who’s merely in charge of organizing evaluations, mailings and the like. When it comes to recruiting, Wannstedt is the true point man.

“There is a reaction from not only recruits, but every single person in the school,” Pitt assistant Charlie Partridge said of Wannstedt after accompanying him on recruiting visits. “It’s an event when he walks in. School stops. That type of environment certainly affects a kid’s view of our program.”

Partridge wanted the recruiting coordinator job. But he’s a South Florida guy. And this job was as much about image as anything. No matter what he did, Bryan Deal was an Ohio guy. So when Pitt concentrated much of its recruiting on the Buckeye state under Walt Harris, Deal was to blame.

Gattuso, however, is Pittsburgh through and through. He’s a Beechview guy, a Seton-La Salle guy, a Duquesne guy. He’s like you and me. At least, that’s what Pitt is selling.

Wannstedt wants to redirect the focus to the WPIAL, the state. On Signing Day, he outlined plans to concentrate recruiting efforts within a 300-mile radius and Florida.

“I don’t see our recruiting going farther than that,” Wannstedt said. “There’s enough players within a 300-mile radius of our campus that you don’t need to go farther, unless it’s a special tie (to the university).”

You might as well extend the radius to closer to 400 miles. Wanny had already talked of how disturbed he was that there were no kids in this recruiting class from Eastern Pennsylvania. Philly is over 300 miles from Pitt. Then there is New Jersey. Not to mention the distance to Cinci. 400 miles should be the number, at least East and West.

I can’t help but wonder how much of the focus on Western Pennsylvania will last. There are plenty of good players in the area, but the great ones are much less than before and more heavily recruited than ever, since Penn State let the Big 11 come to play more frequently. The criticisms of Harris for not recruiting in his own backyard are only partially true. He succeeded for a while with skill players, but the sheer volume and numbers from other areas — especially Florida became harder to resist. Wannstedt may face the same dilemma as the novelty of him being a former NFL coach wears off, and he starts to deal with the issue of numbers of scholarships and talent.

Final story is one of economics. One that makes me wonder just how much our season ticket prices are going to get goosed.

Pitt athletic director Jeff Long knows there is a lot of unrest among Panthers fans because he had to fill the football schedule by adding a Division I-AA team (Youngstown State) for the second consecutive season. He also knows the reality of trying to build a schedule for a big-time football program is not easy especially given the obstacles Pitt has had to overcome the past two years.
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Long said the main issue this year was the fact that Pitt needed a home game — the Panthers need at least six home games to have a chance of meeting their annual athletic budget — but did not have a return game to give back until at least 2007, more likely 2008.

The Panthers’ schedule already is full for 2006. And there is some tinkering needed for the 2007 non-conference schedule because the Big East schedule is unbalanced so the number of non-conference games Pitt needs varies each year.
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The grumbles, however, likely will turn to growls soon when Pitt unveils its new seat-pricing plan for season tickets that’s a part of a new fund-raising effort by the athletic department. The goal of the overall campaign, called “Quest for Excellence” is to raise $45 million for the athletic department by June 2007.

Fans will be asked to pay a premium (it is called donor-based seating and similar to personal seat licensing), which essentially is a donation to the Panthers’ club in order to have the right to purchase season tickets for about one-fourth of the seats at Heinz Field. The same type of set-up exists for all seats at the Petersen Events Center for men’s basketball games. The donation level will vary based on location.

Not sure if our seats are going to get lumped in there. Despite the annoyance over the YSU game and not exactly a great slate of home games this year, this is still probably the year they will put the biggest goose on prices for tickets. They have two things going for them. Notre Dame to kick off the season, and Coach Dave Wannstedt.

AD Jeff Long discloses the hard truth about the expected permanent 12th game being added. It’s all to get more money.

Long said that fans should probably get used to the idea of Pitt and many other Division I-A teams playing Division I-AA teams because the practice will become the norm once the NCAA passes the “12th game legislation.”

“There just aren’t enough teams out there for everyone to schedule another non-conference game against I-A opponents,” he said.

And some conferences will just add another conference game, so the pool of available I-A teams will shrink even more.”

But a playoff would be wrong for college football.

Inconsistent, intensity, effort, energy levels, identity issues. Still trying to figure out this Pitt team is driving the beat writers crazy — not to mention the fans.

Starting with trying to figure out what kind of team this is. Obviously, this is no longer a defense-only team as tagged the last couple years.

Pitt left Morgantown, W.Va., on Saturday night trying to figure out how it could outrebound and outshoot (field-goal percentage-wise) West Virginia and still walk away with an 83-78 overtime loss.

The explanation? Defense — or lack thereof.

It used to be sacrilege to question the defensive play of the Panthers, who’ve done it better than anyone in the Big East in recent years. But when a struggling team such as WVU burns them for 83 points (the second highest point total for the Mountaineers this season), it raises some questions.

We’ve seen Pitt lock down the opposition when they want it. They just don’t always want it, because the team’s scoring is up this year. That means not always being ready or positioned on defense, especially when you are already thinking about being upcourt.

Sophomore center Chris Taft said he saw teammates, including himself, standing “straight up” and “not rotating” on defense at times.

“Those are things we can’t do anymore,” said the 6-10 Taft, who managed just two rebounds in 30 minutes.

Junior point guard Carl Krauser questioned the team’s effort after it had built an 11-point lead less than three minutes into the second half.

“Sometimes, there was a lack of effort,” Krauser said.

The problem is this has been going on all season, and they still haven’t fixed it. Hard to blame the coaches when the players don’t do their assignments.

Taft is under the microscope, and he will keep paying for that ESPN The Magazine piece everytime he isn’t giving full effort.

And shouldn’t Taft be able to move away from the lane and dog a player such as WVU’s 6-foot-11, 250-pound Kevin Pittsnogle? The two are roughly the same size.

WVU took advantage of Taft’s shoddy defense all over the court, including when Pittsnogle faked him off his feet for an easy basket early in the second half.

Did the Mountaineers feel they could run Taft around a bit?

“I thought so,” said swingman Mike Gansey.

Sure, Taft tortured Providence for 25 points and 15 rebounds a game earlier, but the Friars are meek up front. It’s not about the numbers, anyway. It’s about bringing the same intensity to every game, every possession.

Meanwhile, despite his insistence to the contrary, Taft’s offensive repertoire appears to consist of a jump hook and dunks.

Which is fine. Pitt needs him mostly to be a menacing defensive presence and a monster on the boards.

Taft started the WVU game with a few dunks and blocked shots but again was seen jogging back on defense. Dixon probably wouldn’t admit as much, but it sure looked as if he ripped Taft out of game twice in the first half for defensive lapses — once when Taft loafed downcourt; once when he failed to move his feet and got beat along the baseline.

Now I think the blast on Taft’s offense is unfair. Given his size and ability, I prefer him take the high percentage jams and soft hooks. The time for him to try a short jumper or fade was in the early part of the season when games seemed more like scrimmages. Be good to have, but let him use that size properly. No one faults — and they shouldn’t –Troutman for getting most of his points on put backs and lay-ins.

The issues on defense, have been there all season. I find this past game a hard one to get overly critical of the big men inside. All of that long-range shooting is for the perimeter guys to address. Bringing Taft and Troutman outside, often put them out of position when WVU ran a cut inside. Taft and Troutman aren’t fast enough to go inside-out on defense too often.

It’s the teams unpredictability and inconsistencies that are getting to some. The real issue, though, is who and how they are losing.

Pitt players spoke about “relaxing” and “lacking energy” and “taking things for granted” after the loss Saturday.

This is something new in Oakland. A trademark of recent Pitt teams had been the ability to dominate inferior competition.
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Those Pitt teams advanced to the Sweet 16, and they had something in common. They didn’t allow less-talented teams to hang around in games, much less beat them.

Case in point against West Virginia: The Mountaineers made only 2 of 17 shots from 3-point range in the first half against Pitt and made just 29 percent of their field-goal attempts, but still trailed by just seven points at halftime.

“We really can’t keep a team in the game, especially when they’re at home,” Pitt junior Carl Krauser said. “We had to put the clamps on and finish them out, and we didn’t do a good job of that.”

It goes back to a killer instinct. The determination to step on the throat when you have the advantage. Pitt seems to keep thinking teams will just wilt when things go against them. Pitt hasn’t, why should they expect others to?

Tomorrow, St. John’s at home. Ramon is expected to play. No national TV. Showing on FSN-Pittsburgh and ESPN Full Court. No free internet radio. Guess I’ll be hitting refresh on my computer a lot.

My 3rd annual review of the Super Bowl ads can be found here.